This review may contain spoilers
A Soothing Pat on Back for the Grieving Soul
5-Point Short Review+ Points
1. Story and Characters keeps you curious
2. Truly healing drama
3. gets huge support from music and cinematography
- Points
4. Takes time to pick up pace initially
5. I wish it was longer...( not a - Point, really )
Detailed Review
Story & Characters
The first episode might give you many questions about what is happening and why is it so slow and make you lose interest as it did for me. But the curiosity of knowing the answers is what makes you come back and that is also the premise of the entire drama. As they say, Curiosity killed the cat, here, curiosity saves them all. Additionally, the drama focuses on giving closure to different life events and moving on. The base story may seem very usual and ordinary but the way of narration and how it unravels makes it worth watching. The main characters have interesting life going on and their perspectives on everything will teach many life lessons. The side characters too are very inspiring in their own way and life of their own. The romance aspect of the drama is very minimal; I swear I'll surely make my unborn kids watch this one day. The Tech/Scientific part gives off "Black Mirror" in a positive tone and can be a bit unconvincing. Glide over it and you'll find the ride enjoyable.
Healing Aspect
This drama gives various ways to heal from different past events like the death of parents, child, partner; unrequited love, breakup, betrayal, etc. Along the way, it also teaches what love is in a very realistic way without romanticism, where to draw line between holding on to unrequited love and letting go. This makes you question the purpose of life and how to deal with it.
Music & Cinematography
The music plays a huge role in adding depth to each character and intertwines them all. From, a sound engineer, a major portion of the drama unfolding in a music studio, mother comforting her child with her music, a doctor who loves to go Karaoke bar, a person who finds purpose in bringing musicians out of the slump, the drama keeps moving in and out of its musical notes seamlessly. The OSTs doesn't seem quite memorable but it suits the drama and is well placed and has apt lyrics. Moving on to the cinematography, if music is rhapsodizing then cinematography is scintillating. The drama differentiates past events and present with winter/snow and Spring/Sun themes. It helps in making nature as one of its main characters. Even death is portrayed in a visually pleasing way that you might wonder the person didn't actually die but have ascended. The constant light glares, and streaks add a dreamy and fantastical feel to the drama.
Slow Start
Often, dramas tend to have a good start and end in an unsatisfying way but here opposite happens. Overcoming the initial doubts can make this ride rewarding. The screenplay of initial episodes could have been made more concise. Alternatively, After a point, you just get adjusted to the pacing.
Shortening the run of Drama
It is quite a binge-able drama that the next morning after, it makes you yearn for it to be a longer dream. Anything from adding little backstories, and delving a little bit more into the technical aspect of that device would have worked. But alas, it had a perfect ending giving closure to every character.
Was this review helpful to you?
Short and Sweet filled many small surprises!
This mini series is about a man who imagines himself in the 140 character stories he reads on twitter. Every episode has the main character imagine one such story and parallelly, we get to know more about his life as well. Both his life and the stories he contrives are filled with interesting small surprises. This is smartly written making the short duration of episodes to its advantage. The production, acting and music suits the style and theme of the series.If you have 10 minutes to spare, watch this and you'd truly be marveled at the power of imagination.
Was this review helpful to you?
A slice of "Work"
From episode one, I knew this show won't offer me anything special which would touch me and make me reminisce about it months later. A very usual work romance story which goes down the predictable path.Just that this one is less of romance and more of work. The amount of work culture depicted makes me wonder- is it worthy to just watch people working. Yes, there are other super shows which portray leads facing challenges in work and overcoming them, but here, both leads are super hardworking, super competent, overachieving and the challenges are oddly super realistic. So I wasn't super invested to know whether they would succeed. (lol, no points for guessing if they did!)
If not for the sub story of two sisters of ML, I would have definitely dropped it in 4 or 5 episodes. One sister's cute romance story made me squeal more than for the main couple. Another sister's marital issues touched me emotionally more than the leads' problems.
No matter what, I couldn't get interested about the main couple probably because of its web novel origins. They felt very ideal characters. Oh and don't even get me started about the mandatory pre-finale break up. I'm like oh, we are here in 2021 and they are still doing 2010s' things. And this is not a spoiler, don't tell me you didn't see it coming. ('Cause what else could even fill up the show with?! I would have earnestly rated it a little higher if not for it.)
The production was so good, everything looked so pristine. I don't know how they convinced their producer to invest. Was this a PR for Makeup industry work life?! I don't remember any tunes and I won't remember this show in few weeks except from Lee Hyo Joo's super awesome closure.
I would never know why She Would Never Know turned out to be so bland.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Beauty and Beast
I have always been a fan of these "monster" theme stories which kdrama industry keeps inventing, be it Hello Monster, He is psychometric, Flower of Evil. Sometimes it is a behavioral flaw and sometimes it is a certain power. This time the concept was something so novel. Genetic Engineering. Genome editing. Human Experimentation. Religious Cult. Mad Scientist. Invincible Military man who keeps coming back from death. You name it, LUCA has them all.There's the Beast, Z-0 who is constantly on run to survive from people he can't remember. And there's the beauty, (cough cough, with her messy hairdo) who is investigating about her missing parents. Initially, the beauty seems very strong, she can kick some ass, and in turn, gets kicked too because of over confidence. She turns out to be only dialogues and lacking in action. Like one of those moments of getting kicked in ass, she ends up meeting a truck of doom. Comes the beast, saves her, and she later tries to save him. Overestimates herself, only to be saved by him again. And this happens again and again. Meanwhile, falling in love with beast, well it felt like one rainy night mistake. When reality kicks in, she tries to kick some ass, overestimates herself, only to be saved by him again. And this happens again and again. Until, she finally saves the him. Frustrating, ain't it!?
Stories like "beauty and beast" revolve around the idea of highlighting the need of kindness in theory. But Luca turns out to be what would happen in reality. Conflict of interests turning the beast into ruthless monster. For a second, I got reminded of X-men Origins: Wolverine and that wailing. I didn't wail for bodies he piled up. His transformation and the ending is what I loved so much about the show.
But my love couldn't overlook the mess. What went wrong was the repetitive screenplay. And the FL's brain. (was it because of getting constantly hit in the head?) And the inconsistency with its characters. For instance, when Z-0 makes some plans to escape his enemies only to get outwitted but when he is with Ha Neul Ae Gu Reum he somehow succeeds.
Oh the action, I really loved the action scenes. Especially the elevator fight scene, lot better than the one in "K2". But then it too become so repetitive and mundane that I didn't miss anything by skipping them. The music, especially the end track was really good. I wasn't impressed with Kim Rae Won in Doctors but the way he portrayed Z-0 showing emotions of being on edge of constant fear, made me give a ten for acting.
LUCA: The Beginning, great in concept but mediocre in execution.
Was this review helpful to you?
Best Comedy
I came in for the Al thing, as absurd as it sounded in the summary, but stayed for the comedy. The story tried hard to stay original like addressing several serious social issues like trolling, spying, etc despite some weird moments (can't they find scissors?!), overused tropes, but I'm not complaining as they are also the same moments which gave the best comedy. Especially the bridal shower, it was so hilarious I rewatched it several times. Even thinking right now and laughing at it.This has the best sismance type of story, with focus on each character (I liked the story of the sanitiser girl's story more than the main story) and their interactions, it reminded me of my school friends. I loved how they inserted random science thoughts into the story like wondering about XY chromosome, quoting Sigmund Freud etc. I found the romance minimal and if existed to be cringy but it did get steamy.
The ML actor was nothing special but more of eye candy. And the FL actor has improved some since seeing her in devilish joy and fight for my way. It was a bit varied character from her former roles and less crying. The ending OST was good one. Rewatch value is worth for comedy.
Was this review helpful to you?
+ Points
1. Interesting storyline
2. Focuses on side characters too
3. Gets time travel almost correct
- Points
4. Slight focus on romance
5. Bittersweet ending
Detailed Review
If you are like me who loves to watch time-travel stories, then this drama will keep you hooked. The ending scene can be difficult to wrap. A word of caution, the ending might slightly disappoint you.
If you are a novice to time-travel dramas, then this drama offers enough context to understand the story.
The story from the summary may seem to focus on the female lead and her relationships but that isn't so. This takes a broad approach with giving depth to every character; which is also the reason why there is hardly any romance. Sometimes, it may be difficult to keep going on as it focuses on other characters but in the end, it all makes sense.
The opening credits are spectacular and nicely edited.
The character of the female lead is very relate-able - talented but unsure, procrastinating and always in dilemma.
The casting of both the male leads is very perfect. The second male lead is just the perfect guy for the sapiosexuals.
Have a box of tissues with you, just in case. (Justifies the rewatch value)
~~~
This is my first review.
Was this review helpful to you?
More Like Never Night!
With a grandiose beginning narrating the back story of ever night, it fails to give justice to it. This show is undeniably a treat for the wuxia genre fans as it is packed with good sets, production, good and suitable music, well-choreographed fights, good wuxia based scenes and CGI and a good cast. Yet, it doesn't succeed in grabbing the attention of the mainstream audience, obviously because, with a whopping 60+ episodes, it has a very loose storyline and fails to utilize the finely created characters to the fullest potential. There were several speculations of several characters bringing some twist and turns to the plot but they never do, especially the princess character. The grandeur with which she was introduced she doesn't do much in this season. Maybe, more might come in next season. The main characters do undergo some decent character growth as opposed being a bit unlikeable at the start. The penultimate twist was a bit surprising, although not foreseen. It was quite frustrating to know that after spending so much time with this there was no ever night.This could have been aptly renamed as "Ever night: Chapter one The revenge" or something on those lines. Despite its flaws, it was enjoyable for a wuxia fan.
Was this review helpful to you?
Bootstrap Paradox!
A cardiothoracic surgeon turned cosmetic surgeon turned herbal doctor kidnapped by warrior possessing lightning powers through a time rift, an indecisive and confused king with his sensible queen who loses all her sense in crucial moment, and a plotline which goes in circles.Although female lead is comical and less annoying but her ineffectiveness in communication exacerbated by male lead's sense of protection leads to occurence of repetitive events lacking suspense and in turn many blood spillings. Drama refused to use its characters to fullest potential and "kept running away".
Lighting and cinematography is lukewarm, even behind-the-scenes photos were of better quality, Music if present was only hassle, acting was pretty okay.
Final note, watch it for its blood spilling and maybe, play a drinking game for each killing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Unusually Calming Contract Marriage Drama!
+ Ve pointsSweet and Relaxing
No schemes, No possessive characters
-Ve Points
Familial Centric Ending
Modern C-dramas with contract relationships often tend to have scheming Male lead and Utterly spineless Female Lead, this one although with a cold & smart ML and naive & cheerful FL neither has elaborate schemes to make the Contract last nor extensive misunderstanding segments to keep the drama going.
If Misunderstandings did exist, they didn't last long. Additionally, ML knows where to draw the line (to prevent misunderstandings) which is applauded. Our FL is brazen and bold too, with taking initiatives in the relationship.
Side characters though lackluster but don't bother.
The ending is family-first oriented with giving up opportunities that can be a bit off-putting but everything else is cute and sweet.
Was this review helpful to you?
